1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical terminal system and, more particularly, to an optical terminal system for optical data transmission which is to be provided at the terminal of an optical data transmission line in an optical synchronous network.
2. Description of the Related Arts
In recent years, optical communications networks have been rapidly spread due to the development of optical fibers. As the characteristics of the optical fibers are improved, higher-speed data communications are increasingly required and, hence, optical terminal systems having improved functions have been developed.
Precise inspection of such a highly functional and highly integrated optical terminal system is difficult, thereby requiring significant time and labor for the setup and maintenance of the terminal system.
Conventionally, at the time of setup or maintenance of the optical terminal system, only principal functions thereof are briefly checked by an internal loopback test with an optical fiber cable, by a point-to-point test utilizing another optical terminal system, or by means of a dedicated jig connected thereto.
To check the entire function of the highly integrated terminal system which meets requirements of higher data transfer rate, however, functions of respective components (e.g., printed circuit board, module, LSI and the like) of the system should be separately checked by using different jigs and, at this time, the system should be disassembled for the functional check of the respective components thereof. Such an impractical checking method requires considerable time and labor.
Thus, the conventional optical terminal system cannot precisely self-check the functions thereof at the time of the setup and maintenance thereof, because the terminal system is highly functional and highly integrated.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for an optical terminal system that can self-check the functions and performance thereof without depending on a network and without disassembling the terminal system, thereby significantly saving time and labor required for the setup and maintenance of the optical terminal system.